Radio frequency identification (xe2x80x9cRFIDxe2x80x9d) tags are electronic memory devices to which data representing information may be written to and/or read from by an RFID interrogator. The tag may be affixed to or otherwise associated with a particular tagged component, including an item, animal, assembly, device, or product, to store information on the tag relating to that tagged component.
The RFID tag may include a memory chip and a radio signal receiving and transmitting device, both encapsulated together, comprising a transponder. The transponder may be housed within a plastic or otherwise protective housing. The housing containing the transponder may be affixed to the tagged component.
The RFID tag may be communicated with by an RFID tag interrogator, comprising a radio signal sending and receiving device, and a recorder for storing transmitted data. The RFID tag may also include a processor for reformatting or otherwise processing the transmitted data. The interrogator may also comprise multiple components, such as a hand-held transceiver device, and a computer or other storage and/or processing component to handle data storage, processing, and transmission between the hand-held transceiver and the processor.
In prior art RFID tag uses, the format and content of data stored on an RFID tag is structured in a standardized data format. The standardized data format is typically common to a particular industry or group, and to be useable within that industry or group for the intended information storage purpose, the data stored on the tags must be formatted in the standardized format to be understandable to an RFID tag interrogator.
Such practices work well in certain industries, such as for the identification of animals in a feedlot, where a standardized data structure or formatting requirements for the data on the tags may be anticipated. Thereby, the standardized format may successfully accommodate the data formatting needs for that particular industry. Another example, is product bar codes, where a standardized bar formatting system may serve to assign essentially every commercially mass marketed product with a bar code. The data requirements are basically just a product number. Thereafter, the product number may be referenced to other databases containing additional information regarding that particular product. Similarly, an RFID tag such as used in the animal tracking industry may contain all needed information within a tag including a country or location code, and a unique animal identification number. Thereby, a common format for the data stored on the tag may be used throughout the cattle industry.
However, such tag systems may be inefficient or impose undesirable limitations in an industry where no particular standardized data format may serve all data storage and retrieval needs for a particular industry. For example, in an industry where it may be desirable to include on a tag, a substantial amount of component identification, composition and/or historical data related to that particular component, the probability that everyone concerned with reading and/or writing data to or from the tag may desire a particular common data format becomes increasingly unlikely. Such scheme may also create a highly inefficient use of the limited available memory capacity on the tag.
For example, in the petrochemical processing industry, each processing plant will include a vast variety of component variations and equipment types and uses, and will be obtained from a substantial variety of manufacturers, and will be serviced by a wide array of inspectors, services and repairs during the life of each component. One manufacturer may desire only to include their five letter name and a series of data fields describing the product design and specifications, while another manufacturer of a similar component may desire to provide their fifteen character name, a full product description, manufacturing dates and location codes, factory testing data unique to that component, and cost information. Providing an RFID tag data formatting scheme to accommodate the needs of the second manufacturer may be highly inefficient to the first manufacturer. Conversely, providing a scheme to accommodate only the needs of the first manufacturer may be of little value to the second manufacturer.
Prior art RFID tag uses have utilized a selected data storage formatting scheme to accommodate the needs of a particular group of users, such as the cattle industry. Tag users within the group are provided a standardized tag data format, common to all users within that group, including storage on the tag for only pre-determined data fields, each having a pre-set field size and location. For some users, such system may be adequate, while others may feel that the tag is under-utilized or inefficient to meet their desired tag objectives. Little to no flexibility may be available to the dissatisfied tag users to customize the data storage on the tag to meet their desired objectives. If a particular user in a group reformatted the data on his tags, the tags would likely not be decipherable to other users within that group.
Another limitation to prior art methods for formatting data storage on RFID tags is the inability to provide for multiple, user definable data formats on a single RFID tag. With prior art tags, all users who write or read data to a tag have to know the data format on the tag, and conform thereto. Each user follows the same formatting scheme, and may not deviate therefrom and still retain data readily available to all other users.
A method is desired for using an RFID tag which provides each user of the tag with the ability to customize the data stored thereon in a customized format, while still being readily understandable by substantially any other users of the tag. A method is also desired which may permit multiple users to use a single tag and for each user thereof to define a format and utilize a corresponding portion of the full memory/storage capacity available on the tag.
It is desired that tag formatting methods of this invention may facilitate the creation of or become an industry standard, through overcoming the limiting disadvantages of prior art. A method is desired in which the method of customizing the RFID tag data format and making that format readily determinable by other users of the particular tag, may become an industry standard for substantially any industry. The disadvantages of the prior art are overcome by the present invention and an improved method of using an RFID tag and customizing data stored thereon. is hereinafter disclosed.
The present invention provides methods for customized formatting, structuring, and/or organizing data stored on a radio-frequency (RF) identification tag, while simultaneously making the custom format understandable to substantially anyone desiring to read the data thereon. According to this invention, an RFID tag user may select and define a series of data elements/fields the user desires to store on the tag. The tag user may define the order and location in which the data fields are stored on the tag. Thereby, each tag user may permit the data storage space available on the tag to meet that user""s objectives for using the tag.
The tag user may store the data format in a data format file and provide that data format with a data format name. The data format name may be the file name. The data format file may be recorded under the data format file name, remote to the tag, such as in a computer or on a web site. The data format name may be made available on the RFID tag, such that accessing the tag provides the name of the data format file containing the solution or key to the customized data format file. Thereby, when another tag user later interrogates the tag, the user may be provided the name of the file containing the solution for the data format. The file may be located and loaded into the interrogator, such that the understandable information may be provided to another tag user. Thereby, the another tag user may periodically read or write data to the tag, according to the custom-selected tag format. Access to the data format definition may be made freely available, such as on a web site, or provided under restricted access to only select other users.
It is an objective of this invention to provide a method for using an RFID tag in which a tag user may create a customized format for storing data on the tag, without the user being constrained to a particular standardized format.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide a method for allowing multiple users of a tag to each independently format and use a selected portion of the tag in a format desired or selected by that respective tag user and/or formatter.
It is a further object of this invention to allow a tag user to relatively easily exchange data between an RFID tag and an application program, such as a spreadsheet, word processor table, rich text delimited data tables, or database programs. A software tool set may be used to reformat data between the storage format used on the RFID tag, and any of a number of data formats useable by a selected application program.
As additional object of this invention is that the methods disclosed herein may become a standardized method of creating customized RFID tag data formats. Such standardization may permit industries such as the petrochemical industry to utilize RFID tags for component identification and information storage, which might not otherwise be practical for industry-wide data format standardization. Thereby, the method for creating customized RFID tag data formats may become standardized, as opposed to standardizing data formats.
It is a feature of the methods of this invention that a tag user may readily identify the name of the data format used on the tag, by reading the data format name directly from the tag, and thereafter locate, retrieve, load and use the corresponding data format in association with the tag interrogator.
It is a feature of this invention that the corresponding data format may be a data format selected by the tag user from a plurality of previously and subsequently created tag formats.
It is further a feature of this invention that multiple tag users may utilize a common RFID tag for data storage, each user using an assigned portion and location of the available tag memory, and formatting the data contained within their respective portion in a data format different from the other tag users.
It is a feature of this invention to provide methods to allow a tag formatter to allocate available tag memory among one or more tag users. The format of the allocated memory portions and locations also may be stored remote to the tag.
It is an advantage of the methods of this invention to provide the definition of a customized data format remote to the RFID tag and thereby conserve tag memory to be available for storage of data.
It is also an advantage of the methods of this invention that a particular tag format may be made available to a wide variety of potential tag users by making available the data format file and/or the header format file on a web site or in a networked location.
A further advantage of this invention is that data may be manipulated or reformatted by a software tool set to a format compatible with any of a plurality of data formats.
Another advantage of this invention is that a data format may be designed on an internet web site, then stored and/or made available to tag users on that or another internet web site.
It is also an advantage that a tag user may provide as much or as little component data on a particular RFID tag as the tag user desires. In addition, each data field or element may be customized and included in the selected data format.
A further advantage of this invention is that a set of data formats templates are provided in this disclosure, any or all of which and may be utilized as generic data formats. Such formats may be useful to at least a portion of the petrochemical industry.
Another advantage of this invention is that a portion of the data stored on each RFID tag may be protected by a data integrity check system or method, such as a cyclic redundancy check.